Epilogue

Note: This is a literal epilogue, and I won't be going into a lot of detail. That's going to happen in the sequel which will have a lot of insights and follow-up chapters. Okay, on with the finale!

xXx

Paul welcomed me back with a hug, then did the same to Annabeth. He also agreed to let me stay in their house, looking at me as if I was crazy for having to ask. Then they introduced me to Lennie, or twelve-year-old Leanord, my youngest human brother. He had brown hair, gray-blue eyes, was adorable and feisty, and couldn't see through the mist at all. He didn't like me at first, but I immediately loved him and knew I would move Olympus and Tartarus for both of my siblings.

(Yay for fatal flaws.)

It still didn't feel real. Not that night (through which I barely slept due to nightmares) or the next day. Or the day after. I sort of went through everything in a daze, with a couple of exceptions (like crossing the camp border, that had been… harrowing).

It didn't feel real until a familiar empousa showed up just outside the house one day about a week after I got back. I'd just returned from visiting Camp Half-blood and IMing any friends who weren't there already. Seeing them was so good… and sleeping in my cabin…

Surreal. The fact that I tended to oversleep—by a lot—didn't help. I could stay up for almost two days straight before I had to sleep for about the same amount of time. It was… weird. And difficult to adjust to, but I was working on it.

Then I saw Kelli. Outside of my house. I don't know how she got back up out of Tartarus so soon, but she looked all too eager to come at me until she got a good look at me. I just stood in the upstairs window, glaring down at her. I don't know what she saw, but she suddenly went very pale and quickly walked away. And that was that. I knew she was smart. The hellhounds on the following day, on the other hand, weren't.

I didn't bother going out to get them. The moment they came onto the property, they forfeited their right to live on the surface. I didn't feel the least bit guilty stopping their hearts.

However, I also didn't want to put my family in danger any more than I already had, so I decided to take Dad up on his offer. All I had to do was make it to the sea and call him and he appeared. It was so sudden I almost didn't believe it.

(I still didn't quite believe that this wasn't all a fantastical dream, and that didn't help in the slightest.)

He seemed utterly thrilled to take me and we made plans. The next day, after I'd said my goodbyes, I went with him to Atlantis. It was… awkward, especially as no one seemed to know how to treat me. To be fair, I didn't exactly know how to treat them either. Mostly, I just avoided everyone and was as polite as I could be (these were actual gods I was interacting with, after all, and most of them weren't… terrible, unlike some others I could name). Even then, though, I visited Mom, Paul, Estelle and Lennie often. I honestly wanted to stay with them, but was still demigod enough to attract monsters apparently. It was both a relief and frustrating. Why hadn't the worst traits switched over to 'monster' first?

I also began going to therapy. I initially wanted to speak with… Emma (that would never not be weird, godly name or not) about it all but she vetoed that idea very quickly.

"Why?" I'd asked initially, cringing at the idea of speaking to someone who didn't know me already. It actually made me a little sick to think about. (Or a lot sick… but I wasn't about to admit that to anyone.)

She sighed and reached for my hand. "I started studying this because I wanted to help you. I wanted to help the pantheon, too, but knowing you would need help was what gave me the push to get started. But that's just it, Percy. I eventually realized that you need to speak with someone who isn't so close to the situation. We have history."

"You're the Goddess of Mental Health. You are literally the best out there."

She raised an eyebrow. "Just because I'm a goddess doesn't make me perfect. Even in my domain. Quite the opposite."

I opened my mouth to protest, then paused and thought about it. She… wasn't wrong.

"Point," I finally conceded. If anyone could be a 'perfect' goddess, it would be her, but then, she had her own fatal flaw that had apparently transferred over to her goddess state, and I knew she could be wrong. Putting us both in a situation where things could get heated was… probably not a good idea for whatever building we would be in, and I knew there would be yelling in my therapy sessions. Lots and lots of yelling. And probably a fair amount of seawater and ice.

(And if it was Annabeth with me and only Annabeth, then there would also likely be plenty of making out too, and as much as I liked that idea, it probably wouldn't help me like I needed. And I did need it, even I could admit that.)

"Fine," I muttered.

She just grinned and kissed me.

xXx

I went through three therapists from New Rome before I finally settled on one that I mostly clicked with—a man named Jonas Robinson. And then I began sessions in earnest.

It was…

Hard.

Well, sometimes. Sometimes the sessions were us just talking about the latest sports team (Jonas—who insisted that I call him by his first name—really liked sports, especially basketball and hockey, and even though I'd never cared for them, I did find it amusing that my therapist was a little obsessed), but sometimes we would get into topics that had me literally freezing in my seat, unable to move or talk as I relived moments of my life in Tartarus. Sometimes we'd talk about the weather and fishing. Other times we'd speak about how unfairly I'd been treated and how it was okay to feel angry and frustrated, even—especially—with the Old Council.

The thing was, as difficult as I found it, I could see that the more I went in, the better I felt in the long run, even if a session or the couple of days after a session were rough.

I began to venture out of my room in Atlantis to talk to some of the people there. While I still felt stilted, and the Atlantians all looked at me as if I'd grow horns or a second head at any minute, I realized that I liked it better than moping in my room. I could only handle socializing for short periods at first, but… it got easier, and people became less jumpy around me after a while.

Paul, still thrilled to have me back, happily dragged me out to a couple of bars with some of his own friends, who were all much older but still pretty nice. It was… fun.

I also got caught up with everyone I knew.

Nico and Will had set up a permanent residence in both Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter so Will could continue to heal and teach the other demigods how to heal as well. I wasn't sure what Nico did other than remain as broody as he had been fifteen years ago (I suspected he was still doing things for his dad), although more than one person joked that he was the shuttle shunting people between the two camps… but he seemed happy, at least for Nico. So maybe content? And that was pretty good.

He'd almost broken down into tears when he saw me the first time and had thanked Annabeth profusely for following through on her promise. I didn't know what promise that was, but it wasn't that difficult to guess. Then they explained how the two of them hadn't been on the best of terms for a while because Nico was determined to go down and get me. It had taken a combination of Annabeth, Will, Piper, and Hades to dissuade him. Multiple times. And in true Nico fashion, he hadn't really forgiven them. Not until I was out.

That… made me feel very warm inside. I was proud to call Nico my cousin.

Thalia had almost dropped her bow and arrow when she'd seen me, still looking as young as the day she'd first joined the hunt. Then she'd yelled at me, called me a 'Kelp Head' and loudly stated that she wouldn't be treating me any differently, no matter what had happened.

(That had been one of my favorite responses, actually.)

Reyna had indeed been the goddess on the New Council. She'd also been granted godhood—after the New Council had been instated—and was now the goddess of Battle and Strategy in place of Athena. She had slightly different areas of strategy and even battle and also had the realm of 'clear minds' in battle as well as some minor ruling and leading aspects as her domains.

I hadn't asked about her story yet, but definitely planned to.

Piper had found a mortal girl who had 'helped her move on from Jason'. According to her, the new girl had been understanding about the problems and baggage she'd had when she'd finally begun to date again. She didn't know about her heritage and I wondered how Piper explained the monsters that still went after her every now and then, but she looked… well, not as happy or carefree as she'd been when I'd first met her, but better, and like she was getting better all the time. Ann—Emma still fretted over her more often than not, but she was improving and I could definitely attest that that was just about the best anyone could ask.

She'd hugged me warmly when we met and told me she was glad I was back and that she was always a phone call away if I needed something. The idea of being able to actually use a cell phone was still a novel concept, but I resolved to take her up on the offer and maybe even see if she'd be willing to introduce me to her girlfriend. I definitely wanted to meet the woman who had helped her so much.

Hazel and Frank had… had an interesting relationship, it seemed. In my dreams, I thought they'd married, and apparently they had, but only after some interesting drama. They'd dated, then broken up, then dated, then broken up, then dated again, mainly because they both seemed to think they were bad for the other person and didn't want to hold them back or drag them down. Annabeth was still working with them on it, but it had gotten better and they'd finally tied the knot only a couple of years before I got back. They had both been utterly thrilled when they found out I was back, of course, and offered me a spare room at their place in New Rome whenever I wished.

Another offer I was determined to take them up on once I felt safe enough to leave Atlantis for more than a couple of days at a time.

Leo was also still at Camp Half-Blood (or, New Athens, really), building up the main living areas for the demigods who wanted to settle down there. Apparently, he was still dating Calypso, although with her being given domains and an Olympian Throne, their relationship tended to be very long-distance. Leo didn't seem to mind, though, and claimed Calypso didn't either. We did both have an interesting chat about dating goddesses though.

What did surprise me when it came to him, though, was the fact that an accident had taken Leo's right leg and given him scars on his face and hands similar to his father. He'd just laughed it off and said it was a hazard of the job and that he didn't mind. I really hoped he meant that. He'd fashioned himself a mechanical leg he walked around on like he'd been born on it. He also had so many gadgets and gizmos on it, up to and including drink slots, I was surprised he could lift it. It was Leo, after all.

It had been one of the biggest changes that I'd seen since getting back and really drove home just how long I'd been down in Tartarus. Not that I hadn't known before, what with Mom and Estelle and Lennie, but still…

Clarisse… had died on a quest saving her other two teammates. She'd never stopped wanting to take quests, apparently, and it had caught up with her eventually.

That… had been hard to take, despite us not having been really close. I had respected her, especially in the end. I wondered what her next life would be like. I bet somewhere between professional wrestler, bounty hunter, and explorer of some kind.

(I hoped she wasn't a demigod so she could wander the world freely.)

Grover had almost bowled me over when we finally met and we talked for hours about literally nothing and everything we could think of. That had been a good day.

Chiron, of course, was still at camp and more than a little happy to see me back safely as well. He'd assured me that I was more than welcome at Camp Half-Blood at any time and I happily took him up on the offer, as there were few places I felt as safe. However, the other campers I wasn't so close to and the new kids looked at me like… well, like I was a god or a monster, and that made me more than a little uncomfortable. Both Chiron and Annabeth assured me that it would just take a little time, but that was another reason I tended to stay in Atlantis.

It took me three months to realize that I needed to figure out what was going on between me and Annabeth… Emma… whatever her name was. (Apparently 'Annabeth' translated into 'Emma' somehow with Greek involved somewhere—she explained it to me, but I only got about half of it, thanks ADHD.)

I called her and asked her to come to Atlantis, which she did a couple of days later.

She told me she still loved me and wanted to move at my pace now that I was back and going through therapy. Jonas said that having her in my life was a stabilizing influence, despite her being a goddess and gone fairly often. I knew I could count on her, though, and I told her about how she had almost single-handedly gotten me through that nightmare.

(Jonas convincing me that I wasn't dreaming was part of the reason why I chose to stay with him as a therapist.)

Then I told her I didn't want to wait any longer and asked her if she would marry me. We had been dating for almost two decades at this point, even if a lot of that had been involuntarily long distance. She'd insisted on examining me as the goddess of mental health before finally agreeing—very happily.

We also decided we didn't want to wait and would have eloped more or less right then and there if Aphrodite hadn't shown up and insisted on a wedding. Apparently she'd been planning it for decades.

We left reigning Aphrodite in to Piper, who volunteered (thankfully), and allowed for a month before the wedding. Everyone, including Mom and Paul, were supportive and came forward to throw said wedding together.

Annabeth's mortal family was flown out to New York, where we miraculously got a lovely venue for a very reasonable price (amazing what could happen when you had the goddess of love and her daughter on your side) and on one of the most nerve-wracking days of my life, I married my best friend… who also happened to be a brand new goddess, the king of the gods, and the most beautiful woman in the world.

We opted for a house in New Rome, right next to Hazel and Frank so I could take that extra room whenever I needed company and she wasn't there. Plus, I'd be closer to my therapist, and everyone seemed to agree that that would be a good thing.

I hadn't left my time in Tartarus behind—not by a long shot, but life was getting better… and that was more than I could have ever hoped for while down there.

xXx

AN: So I wanted this to be a little all over the place because that's how Percy's feeling. And, again, there will be some points I'll address in the sequel. If there's anything in particular you'd like to see touched on, please let me know in the comments. I can't guarantee I'll get to it, but I'd like to know what my readers are curious about. :)

Thank you to my beta readers once again! Berix, Ajax, Asterius Daemon, Starlight3 and Quathis!

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